Europe’s new $50B DIY missile plan is the ultimate ‘we can pay for ourselves’ move
Nothing says "we hear you, please don't leave us" quite like a massive joint military project. With the US constantly telling Europe to pay its own way, a dozen countries just agreed to build a brand-new, super-long-range precision missile.
The new British Prime Minister Keir Starmer kicked off the initiative, rallying a club of European nations plus Canada to build a missile that can strike targets over 1,200 miles away.
The goal is to build a massive, shared deep-precision strike capability so they don't have to keep begging Washington for help every time things get tense. Right now, European militaries are a chaotic mess of different weapons, so part of the $50 billion budget is literally just going toward designing a single, standardized artillery round so everyone can finally use the same ammo.
This sudden burst of European military teamwork isn't happening in a vacuum. It comes exactly as Donald Trump doubles down on his "pay up or else" message, demanding allies boost their core defense spending to 3.5% of GDP.
It turns out the best way to get Europe to build its own weapons is to threaten to leave the group chat.
Source: UK Government
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